Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof.

V, V for Vendetta

I loved V for Vendetta, the movie and I could recognize a younger myself in V’s speech. There is something compelling about bulletproof ideas that remain and that in time other people and other bodies will bring them forward. What we need to understand is that free speech is about ideas, while violence is always about bodies.

What legislators, advocates, regulators and policy-makers fail to see is the power of brutality and violence to silence and even to annihilate the body of the assaulted person. That it is virtual, does not make the attack any less real or painful. Our data selves and online bots inscribe our bodies in our physical realities with a terrific precision. The online is not virtual, virtuously removed from the body – it is inscribed in the same patriarchal world that will use any argument to silence diversity, while allegedly upholding free speech.

Feminism is a political statement, and more importantly political practice, way of thinking, understanding and public articulation of practically every issue of life.

If I try to translate this virtually, in Internet language so to say, I can state that feminism should be the basic, non-exclusive, element of the code that constitutes every possible algorithm. The human mind-intelligence is embodied in the real world. If the real world is sexist, it is very likely that most of the technology that develops will have the virus of sexism in its core as well. That core will seamlessly define rules and space of the virtual world. Continue reading “Why feminism matters to Internet?”

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hvale vale (small letters as per bell hooks). Writer, feminist and activist, as such I connect women’s rights, sexual rights and the internet poetically, politically and practically and advocate for the #feministinternet.

I migrated in 1994 to the Western Balkan, first working for international humanitarian aid organizations, than in 2003, I led the process that established the first online media for civil society, now One World Platform, a local registered organisation that tackles and researches the intersections between internet rights, women’s rights and the transformative power of technology, where I continue to serve pro bono as president of the board. After coming back to humanitarian aid in the wake of the disastrous floods that hit Bosnia Herzegovina and the neighborhood countries in 2014 and the subsequent refugees’ crisis along the “Balkan Route”, in April 2017 I started a new professional adventure with the Women’s Rights Program of the Association for Progressive Communication focusing on the intersection of Sexual rights and the internet.

I discovered and learned about technology-related issues through my work, so my engagement with internet and digital rights ranges from policy advocacy to capacity building. Most of all love learning from people and facilitate digital storytelling, a visual methodology for social change that combine solidarity, healing and a powerful peer-to-peer co-production.